R&R clutch, now pedal not releasing

[tnwilz]

I have 98 B2500 and I heard the pilot bearing disintegrate and while the clutch continued to work I could no longer take it in or out of gear which I figured was caused by restricted travel with the broken pilot bearing. Over the last few months though, it had been harder and harder to get in and out of gear, often grating a little. So I purchased a Clutch kit and slave cylinder at Kragens. Had a guy change it out and now the clutch pedal has no resistance and you can't put it in gear. We bled and bled the hydrolic system over and over. Took the master cylinder out and tested it, no problem. Looking through the view hole in the tranny we can see that the slave does move a little against the fingers, but only a little. The pedal has no resistance at all now but it did before the repair. Also before the repair but after the pilot bearing went out the clutch would still disengage even though I could no longer put it in gear without stopping the engine. However now, the clutch will not disengage. We're stumped. The parts from the clutch kit looked identical to the old ones and the guy swears he put the clutch plate in the right way around. He quit saying he couldn't fix it. Now I'm faced with taking it all back apart by myself but I have no idea what to look for.

 

[tnwilz]

Ok so I took it apart and replaced the after market slave (Rayspestos) with one that looks identical to the original (Duralast). Much better because now I have resistance on the clutch pedal. However although it moves much more than the last one its still not enough to completely disengage the clutch and I still cant put it in or out of gear. Im wondering if something broke in the gearbox thats not allowing me to put it in and out of gear. Im testing it up on jacks with no oil in the gearbox because I dont want to drain it over and over everytime I have to pull it apart again. That would make any difference would it?

Tomorrow I will replace the master cylinder. Its the next logical thing. Cant believe I stumped you all.

 

[Sunk]

Sometimes the master can be extremely difficult to bleed 100%. It may take removing the cylinder from the firewall and holding it upside down while depressing the rod to get the last little bit of air from the line.

 

[tnwilz]

Yeah I bought a new one but I'm going to try and bench bleed it.
A Ford master mechanic told me that Rangers are notorious for this problem. He said they always bench bleed the slave with the quick connect hose on before installing it because otherwise they have had guys spend all day trying to bleed it. Just a bad design I guess. I do think that the master was letting in air slowly because I have had trouble getting it in and out of gear for six months, it was just getting worse and worse. The old clutch was paper thin so it didn't take much to disengage it. Of course the new one will need the full range of the clutch system in order for me to get it in and out of gear.

So that appears to have been the problem. Its just a question of if I can bleed it sufficiently to operate again. I am surprised that no one in a Ranger forum knew about all this unless that mechanic has misinformed me and I still wont be able to fix it.

 

[tnwilz]

So that was it. The new master fixed the problem. I bench bled it first with the hydraulic line attached so there was no air left inside and the plunger that attaches to the pedal was rock solid. Installed it in the truck, attached it at the quick connect and it worked. If you Google "Ranger clutch problems" you will find this same issue all over the web, its a well known issue. Can't quite understand how a Ranger club was stumped by this. Something is odd with this group. Oh well, hope I helped you guys in some way - well, I guess I did. If any of you ever change your clutch you're gonna run into this and then your gonna say "Oh my God, what is going on, why is standard bleeding not working and why is it so hard to change gears?" and then someone else is gonna say "Hey I think another guy changed his clutch once and discovered the deep hidden secrets that NOBODY here knows about. We should look up his thread.

So ummm, thanks for not helping!

 

[Sunk]

I know this issue has been addressed a few times on here, but I guess nobody responded for some reason... Glad you got it figured out!

 

[mazdamama]

not to be rude but if i would have noticed this earlier i would have deffinately helped you out, i think next time you should post a question like this in the transmission or even engine forum in order to get more help. Since mazdas and rangers have the same drivetrain, this is not just a mazda specific problem, and therefore your post went unnoticed because not as many people actually read posts in the "Mazda Specific" section.

 

[tnwilz]

Aha, thank you, I thought something was odd. My fault - lesson learned.

 

[ZMan]

A nice little trick I learned from someone here, and do on all the vehicles I put a clutch in, I pull back the carpet, and I just pop the snap ring out of the master while its still in the truck, and pull the rod out, it lets the air out, then I put the rod/snap ring back in. It makes a little bit of a mess, but I just wipe it up with some lacquer thinner or brake cleaner. That takes care of the problem without having to bench bleed it.

 

[AllanD]

And again, not to be rude but if this had been posted in "Transmission"
instead of "Mazda specific" it would have gotten much quicker attention

And I'm MOVING this topic to transmission where it shoulda been in the first place...

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[fastpakr]

We should probably just post a tech article on how to do it since it comes up pretty often. I know I've posted that procedure quite a few times since it saved me several years ago.

 

[AllanD]

I'm fascinated and depressed that as many times I've said:

"You cannot bleed a 1993-up Ranger clutch master cylinder with it
attached to the firewall."

that it is still not common knowledge.

When installing a new slave that is going to require bleeding I pull the master out of the truck.

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[fastpakr]

Why do you take it completely out rather than just pulling it away from the firewall and flipping it upside down?

 

[AllanD]

Why do you take it completely out rather than just pulling it away from the firewall and flipping it upside down?

IF you've already got it dismounted from the pedal and firewall I'd rather spend as little time bent over the fender as possible.

I'm not in my 20's anymore and haven't been for.... Oh... 17years or so...

If you bleed the entire assembly as a unit then reinstall it it's just gotta work...

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